Five Days in Zimbabwe

School children preparing to board a bus.

Day One Friday: 

We flew to Bulawayo, rented a car and drove to the Flame Lily Hotel in Gweru Zimbabwe, just in time to have dinner in their diner.

As I'm dipping my tomato sandwich into the butternut soup I suddenly notice a cute little face peering at me from under the chair a couple yards away.

"There are rats in this restaurant" I say as I pull my feet up onto the chair rung.

We walk back to the dimly lit red room... red walls, red floors & black trim.  I guess when we turn out the lights it won't matter.  My shoes crunch the dust with each step. What kind of a crunchy dust must be on this floor!?  The light is too dim to see. Maybe I don't want to see. I take the decorator pillow off the bed and put it on the floor.  I change my mind and put the pillow back up on the bed.  Ants!  Dozens of them, scurry onto the sheets.  We brush them off.  Did those just come off the floors?!!  I look at the bottom of  my shoes. Crunched ants are smeared all over the bottom of my shoes.  I must have killed billions just from walking in the room.  I'm glad they can't cry out.     Hhhhhhh. 

Saturday Day Two: 

Our assignment in Gweru was to meet with the old and new stake presidents and clerks and a councilor was also there.  We went over records and reports and did some training for several hours.  What great brethren!  I liked a sign on the wall that said:

"If you only pray when you're in trouble, you're in trouble!"

The Gweru stake recently completed a helping hands activity, building a home for a Grandmother who was caring for her 10 orphaned grandchildren.  They had been homeless, living in the bush.  

Home built for a grandmother & 10 orphaned grandchildren

New hotel, new adventure!  

Night two we were very happy to be in a different place. We stayed in The Village Hotel.

Pretty gardens whose boarder looked like a giraffe neck.

This place was a step up from the night before but we were still in for some adventure.
I hope someday someone will ask us if we've ever been in a grass hut in the middle of Africa in a booming thunderstorm in pitch black darkness because we will be able to say "why, yes we have!"

As we sit tight in the power outage's darkness with lightening bolts and surround sound thunder I feel a drop on my head.  Hmm, was that rain seeping through the thatch or a creepy crawly something or other.  Power did eventually come on for about two hours but was out all the rest of our stay there.
Onto day three!

Sunday Day Three:
We drove to Masvingo for church.  They were watching conference on dvd this week.
Until the day comes when we have a perfect recollection of all things, we can never get too much conference. I'm not finished looking for my favorite quotes but what I love so far is:

President Monson: 

"Decisions determine destiny."

"Walking where Jesus walked is less important than walking as He walked."

Pres Uchtdorf:  

"Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us, but it is our fear, doubt and sin, that like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us."  
Quentin L. Cook
In all things we should remember that being “valiant in the testimony of Jesus” is the great dividing test between the celestial and terrestrial kingdoms.
Carlos A Godoy:  
"If you continue to live as you are living, will the blessings promised in your patriarchal blessing be fulfilled?"

After conference we met with the branch president and his clerk to do similar training as we did in Gweru on Saturday.

In Masvingo we stayed in the Great Zimbabwe Hotel.  Look what was spying on us through the tree outside our door:

Where's Waldo?

Ah!  There he is!

There were hundreds of monkeys running around in this area.  

Monday (P-day) Day Four:

Chris with Enerst Mlambo

We went with a recommended guide named Enerst Mlambo to see the famous ruins of Masvingo. He told us "Zimbabwe can talk to you if you just ask as many questions as you can!"  Ernest grew up here and as a little boy, elephants still roamed free.  A group of elephants would come to his home every morning and take him to school.  Then precisely at 4:00 in the afternoon they would show up at the school and give him a ride home.  He told us how one day he stayed late and was playing soccer.  At one point the elephants thought he was being chased by the other boys and "Oh there was trouble. The dust was flying & boys were being picked up in the elephant trunks!"

Besides the ruins we also saw some bushman paintings, a cave and a dam.  The sign at the dam said "No entry beyond this point if you've been drinking beer."  Ha ha!

Enerst lives where the red arrow is.  Elephants would take him to school on the
other side of the Mt we are on.   (Yes, we climbed it! Was a pretty nice trail)
Click the picture to enlarge. 

Here are a few pictures of our Monday outing:

This used to be the King's throne

Cute little church near the dam. (No longer in use)

He was stringing seeds to sell at the dam.

This lady was walking in front of us to her home

This was the ladies home.
Her children are waiting for the water she carries.

They were raising turkeys! 

At one point a young man named Simbarushe joined us.
He asked if we could drop him off at the shopping center.  This was the shopping center!

Mr. Cranky Pants:
All in all we found the people of Zimbabwe to be very good and gentle people.  Of course there must be opposition in all things.  On this day four, as we were driving back to Bulawayo we encountered what my kids would call a "Mr Cranky Pants".  We were driving through town and came upon a car just stopped in the middle of the road.  When all was clear, we went around the stopped car.  All of a sudden a policeman pulls up along side of us and motions for us to pull over.  He tells us we crossed a double line.  First off, the lines are so faint you can't even tell what they are and secondly, we were going around a stopped car!  Even so, he told us the fine for that was $365.00!  (they use US dollars in Zimbabwe)  Plus he told us they needed to impound our car until Friday!  (This was Monday) Chris was most excellent at pleading our case.  It wasn't our car, it was a rental...we needed to return it...we had to be in Bulawayo tonight...we had a plane to catch tomorrow etc.  The cranky policeman was not going to budge.  He was hoping for a bribe bigger than $365.  We had no choice but to pay or go to the station and impound the car.  Chris offered him $200 which was all we had on us.  The police didn't want to settle for less but was hoping for more.  Chris showed him that it was all that we had.  He was reluctant but accepted it.

Off we drove, minus our $200.00, watching for people in the street as well as cattle, donkeys, goats & chickens.  Each minute became more difficult as the western sky was darkening and the fireball setting sun was straining at our eyes.   We were glad to make it safely to the Musketeers Lodge.  It borders a reserve area of African animals where you can go on safari.  Just over the fence at this lodge, you can sometimes see giraffes.

Today, Tuesday- Day Five:
At the Zim airport we encountered a "Mrs. Cranky Pants".  The mean lady seemed to love being in control and having power when she told me I had to throw out my empty water bottle!   I always carry that empty water bottle so that I can refill it and I tried to argue with her but she was really ornery & it was useless.  Oh well.

Now to show you that there is always good to be found, there were many positives today. Two of which were on the bus from the plane to the airport. I was standing in a spot where there was no ring or bar to hold onto.  As the bus drove along I bent my knees slightly and imagined myself on a surfboard gliding smoothly over the waves.  I was doing just great when suddenly the bus lurched and I found my feet doing a little Irish jig. I didn't think it was even noticeable but a man standing behind me put his hand on my shoulder and said "I've gotcha."  A lady seated by me put her hand on my elbow and asked me if I was okay.  I was very surprised at their kindness and thanked them for it. They smiled kindly.  Ah, such good people in this world.  They are everywhere.

We are thankful to arrive home safely in Joburg.  We are thankful for the amazing work of the Lord taking place on the earth at this time.  We are thankful to be helpful to God and to the people of Africa.  What we do is such a small drop in the big ocean of work taking place but we are glad to contribute our little drop.